"Their brain activities are slowing, sir. Too much more could put them into cardiac arrest,"

The man nodded slowly, rubbing his chin.

"This isn't the result I intended. I need him to have a complete mental shutdown. Without that, all of this will be futile. He's very close to breaking, though. His friend....don't worry about her. Continue the injections, when she dies Sherlock will go mad. His mind will completely collapse. In fact, increase the injections. This needs to speed up,"

"Yes, Lance," The other man said, obeying.

The man, Lance, walked over to a monitor and stared ominously at the screen. His eyes were dark, and cold. And the images from the monitor danced across his sinister face.

"Soon, Holmes. It won't be long....."

* * * * * * * *

"You've solved it?!" Lucy said, "Well come on then! Spit it out!"

I paced back and forth with the biggest grin plastered across my face. I couldn't get my words out fast enough as the realizations came to me in a wave.

"All the names of all the people that look exactly the same, look at their names, Lucy!" Lucy shuffled some papers around on my desk and wrote down a few things.

"Oh my god! How did I not see that?" She said in awe handing me the paper she'd scrawled the names on:

Mike

Inger

Samuel

Simon

Menger

Edgar

"They spell out-"

""Miss me" I know," I finished for her as I wrung my hands together furiously.

"But it's not Moriarty. He's dead and if he was alive he wouldn't do something like this. This is too simple, but for some reason you and I managed to look right past it. Why? That's not something we do. But Lucy, do any of these facts fit together to you? At all? They don't. Because whoever's behind all this: the memory loss and the robbery, they don't want it to fit. They're trying to trip is up. But....the case still exists. They must have done it in a certain way or they wouldn't have done it....." I shouted in frustration and flipped the desk chair over my head and into the floor.

"God! Lucy help me! I need help...." I turned to Lucy and she glanced at me incomprehensibly.

"Just.....I don't know," Lucy said blankly. I stared at her incredulously.

"What the hell do you mean you don't know?! You're the one that said you're clever! And now you don't know? Is this some kind of joke?!" I asked my blood boiling and my heart racing.

"No...I just don't know. You could call the police..." She said distantly.

I paused and looked at Lucy. Her eyes were far away and she seemed to not comprehend anything that was happening. I needed her. Something was wrong and for some reason she wasn't responding. The situation was worsening and I didn't know what was happening. The walls felt like they were closing in and I felt Lucy grew even more distant with each breath. I looked around blindly for an answer and my eyes eventually made their way back to Lucy's face. I took a step towards her and ran my fingers through my hair in desperation. I crouched down to her level and leaned forward pressing my lips against hers.

* * * * *

"Sir, Lucy's brain activity has increased dramatically and so has Holmes's....."

Lance gritted his teeth and slammed his fist against the table.

"Damn! Disconnect her entirely. She's become too much of a catalyst for Sherlock. Take her out and make sure she stays out,"

* * * * *

Lucy suddenly fell away from me, pulling her body away from mine. She collapsed limply onto the couch. My heart throbbed and my breathing became rapid.

"Lucy?" I shook her carefully and I took her wrist trying to find a pulse that I knew wasn't there. Her body had gone completely limp and her heart wasn't beating.

"No....nononononono...." I pleaded as I stood over Lucy's lifeless body. My heart contracted and bile rose in my throat. I started hyperventilating as I struggled to get oxygen into my body. I squeezed my eyes shut trying to block out the stabbing pain in my chest. But I saw her even behind my eyelids. Tears wouldn't come, the pain was too immense and the sadness so great my body didn't think tears were fit for this kind of pain that threatened to kill me. The world was falling to pieces one by one and I couldn't stop it. Everything that I thought I had was gone. No one thought of my intellectual powers as godlike anymore. They were simply mundane and on another medium, even inexistent. This case was taking everything I thought I knew and was turning it inside out. The spark of love I might have felt for Lucy had been extinguished just as she had. Just as I thought she would. No one was safe with me. Not even I was. I took in a shaky breath and collapsed onto the floor on my knees. If I prayed, I might die myself.

* * * * * *

Lance laughed a deep, complacent laugh.

"Finally! The great detective, had been brought down. I never thought I'd see the day," Lance smirked from ear to ear and called for one of his workers.

"A glass of champagne for everyone! And we shall toast, to a new Sherlock Holmes!" The entire room burst into cheers and high fives and Lance smiled evilly at a computer monitor.

"Not long now..." He muttered.